


remember the taste of my name

by smokesque



Series: Klance Week 2016 [7]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Angst, Flowers, Hurt No Comfort, Klanceweek2k16, Language of Flowers, M/M, Non-Linear Narrative, Post-Break Up, Sad, Stars, Well I did warn you, i just hope you can make sense of this honestly, it's a bit confusing, just bullshit and tears mostly, mostly metaphorical ones, oops ??
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-10
Updated: 2016-08-10
Packaged: 2018-08-07 22:24:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 619
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7732033
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/smokesque/pseuds/smokesque
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When a star is more massive, it burns out quicker because it uses up its fuel much faster. Some stars explode in supernovas after only a few million years. Keith feels himself bursting after only one.</p>
            </blockquote>





	remember the taste of my name

**Author's Note:**

> all i seem to do is put keith through pain. i'm so sorry i don't know why i'm like this. but we've reached the end of klance week (i can't believe i actually participated in every day, i wasn't expecting to do that) and here is my final contribution. flowers/stars for day 7.
> 
> myosotis is the genus of plants commonly referred to as 'forget-me-not's. in the language of flowers they are associated with undying love and remembrance of memories with someone important to you. (in case anyone of you are not a fuckin flower nerd.)
> 
> you can read this on my [tumblr](http://ailourophilic.tumblr.com/post/148741388117/klance-week-has-been-a-lot-of-fun-and-i-think-ive) and find out more about klance week [here](http://klanceweek.tumblr.com/).

Keith is made up of distasteful expressions and snarky comments. He’s used to having the last word (and making it a good one). Keith survives on the knowledge that he _knows_ how to hurt people, how to get under their skin and damage them. It is by no means healthy but it’s the only way he knows how to keep going.

Lance eats up Keith’s words and spits them right back in his face. He mimics his facial expressions and twists his comments until they cut like blades on the tender skin of Keith’s ego, untouched by anyone else’s words. Keith heats up in Lance’s presence. He is all too focused on gaining the upper hand, having the last word (forget making it a good one), and he loses sight of the endgame. He loses sight of everything except Lance’s eyes like myosotis and smile like starlight.

It’s easy and natural to be around Lance, and Keith is sure he is breathing oxygen for the first time. It feels clean in his lungs. He stops trying to cough up his insides.

-

When a star is more massive, it burns out quicker because it uses up its fuel much faster. Some stars explode in supernovas after only a few million years. Keith feels himself bursting after only one.

Lance is the largest star in Keith’s galaxy. He’s beautiful and brilliant and _alive_ with his fire. But a year takes its toll on even the strongest and Lance fizzles away from Keith’s solar system. He shines for other people now. He touches other skin in the middle of the night.

Keith starts to cough again, horrible movements wracking his body. He heaves with the effort it takes to cough until his lungs turn dry and his heart stops beating. It’s exhausting and all Keith wants to do is sleep until he ceases to exist. He watches everything crash and burn around him and yearns for the one thing that doesn’t burn anymore.

-

(Keith has a five-star constellation tattooed on the inside of his left wrist.

Lance makes fun of him the first time he sees it.

Three weeks later, Lance has a matching one on his right hip.

Keith doesn’t say anything.)

-

Flowers grow in the absence of Lance’s touch. Keith lets the vines wrap across his chest and tangle around his arms, thorns digging into the soft skin of his inner wrists. He doesn’t trim the leaves of his sadness, instead lets them grow into a swamping hedge that suffocates him with tendrils in his mouth and branches round his throat. Quaint little myosotis bloom all along his limbs and Keith can’t help but snort at the irony.

_As if he could ever forget Lance._

Keith can’t escape the blue crawling across his skin any more than he can find relief from the blue that taints his memories. It feels like falling asleep and waking up at the same time so that it blurs together at the edges and leaves him feeling tired and uneasy. He is rough edges and cracked mirrors and all the little bits of mud trod into the carpet without noticing. Lance crushes Keith under the heel of his boot and Keith let’s himself crumble away into nothing.

It beats trying to live on his own again.

-

(Lance hands Keith a bunch of ambrosias on their first date. It’s stupid and sappy but Keith feels a little bit warmer inside.

 _Your love is reciprocated_.)

(Keith plants yellow tulips after Lance’s starlight fades away. He can’t bring himself to pick them but he hopes Lance will see them and understand. He hopes Lance knows he will always be a star to Keith.

 _There’s sunshine in your smile_.)


End file.
